Don't Go Near the Water

Bubba Tongay, 5, and his sister Kathy, 4, have been knocking off long-distance swimming records ever since they were old enough (ten months) to dog-paddle. Back home in Miami, the wide-shouldered, sun-scorched Tongay kids swim seven miles before breakfast every morning. Last year Bubba swam 22 miles down the Mississippi. The kids' father and trainer, ex-Coast Guardsman Russell Tongay, had an extraordinary plan: he wanted the children to swim the ig-mile English Channel and maybe win some of the $19,600 prize money offered by the London Daily Mail.

Last week Russell, Bubba, Kathy and their schoolteacher mother arrived in Britain, all set to spend the summer giving swimming exhibitions to raise money for the Channel try late this summer. Russell was sure that Bubba could make it, although Kathy, he conceded, might well have to give up before the end. As it turned out, however, neither of the kids was likely even to get wet. A small tidal wave of indignation swept Britain. Letters to the newspapers denounced the scheme as cruel exploitation. "I cannot help thinking," said Home Secretary James Chuter Ede in the House of Commons, "that swimming the Channel at that early age is rather a severe test even for an infant prodigy."

When the Tongays arrived at London Airport last week, the whole family was placed under "technical arrest." While their parents argued with representatives of the Home Office, Bubba and Kathy raced in wild unconcern up & down the corridors of the immigration building. When the officials told them to go home forthwith, Bubba menacingly waved a toy six-shooter under their official noses. Next day the officials relented slightly, said it was all right for the Tongays to stay in England for one month. But any swimming the kids did, they warned, must be strictly for fun--not cash.

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